


Cold December Night

by The_White_Wolf



Series: Lauriver Christmas Submissions 2020 [4]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:08:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27997284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_White_Wolf/pseuds/The_White_Wolf
Summary: Oliver and Laurel patrol on Christmas Eve and are stuck out in the cold.
Relationships: Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen
Series: Lauriver Christmas Submissions 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2042908
Comments: 13
Kudos: 12
Collections: Lauriver Holidays 2020





	Cold December Night

**Author's Note:**

> And this is my final submission for the Lauriver Holiday week. I kind of cheated a little, and made a hybrid between the cuddling for warmth prompt and patrolling on Christmas. Not sure how I feel about it, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

Oliver hated having the Christmas Eve shift. What made tonight worse was that for the first time since he can remember it was snowing in Star city. He shivered as he and Laurel were patrolling through the port, where they knew that there was meant to be a shipment of Vertigo and Slam coming in.

Out of the corner of his eye, Oliver noticed that Laurel was rubbing her arms. He made a mental note to ensure that they had suits made for this sort of weather. Oliver walked up behind her and rubbed her arms, before wrapping his arms around her. “See anything, Pretty Bird?” He whispered into her ear.

Laurel shivered against him. “No… God, why did I let you convince me it was a good idea to patrol tonight?”

Oliver chuckled and pulled her close. “Because I’m irresistible.”

“Ollie?” Laurel whispered quickly as he pressed a kiss to her neck. “Ollie…” He kissed again. “Stop, look!” She said, pointing at a man unloading a shipping container. “It’s a bit late for unloading one of those isn’t it?”

Oliver nodded. “Let’s go and take a look.” He silently jumped off the shipping container and down to another before landing on the ground. Judging by the soft crunch of the snow behind him, Laurel was next to him. Oliver gestured to one of the thugs that were patrolling. Laurel gave a small jerk of her head before she quietly moved towards him to incapacitate the man.

Oliver moved on to another thug, he loosed an arrow into his back before knocking him out with a hard punch to his head. He then moved towards the shipping container to see several large boxes with children’s toys inside. He studied the teddy bears that were meant to represent the Flash, Speedy, The ATOM, him, Black Canary, and Supergirl. 

“Arrow?” He heard Laurel’s voice echo off the shipping containers. He saw Laurel holding a Flash teddy bear that had been slashed across its belly. That is when he saw the drugs that were hidden inside.

Before he could react, he felt like his leg was on fire. He dropped to his knees, hard.

It was then that he heard more gunfire.

Oliver swore as he dragged himself into cover. Laurel grabbed his bow, then deftly took his quiver off, and started loosing arrows, before taking cover in the shipping container. It was his fault, it was a stupid idea to spend Christmas Eve on patrol.

Quick!” He heard several men shout before the doors of the container were barred shut.

Laurel turned to look at him, her eyes widening as she saw his bloody leg. He watched as she immediately opened up another crate, and watched her shoulders sag in relief as she pulled out another towel that had all of them looking like cartoon superheroes. Laurel looked at the wound for a second. “it’s just a graze. This is going to hurt.” She warned him before she tied the beach towel around his leg.

Eventually, she sat next to him, occasionally keeping an eye on him, and his leg. “I’m sorry, Laurel.” He whispered. Laurel didn’t say anything, instead, she cuddled into him, and wrapped another towel around them. It was around that time, he felt just how cold it really was.

He could literally see their breaths intermingling. It felt like the temperature was below freezing in the container.

“I think they have gone.” Laurel sighed. “There’s no point using my cry, or one of your arrows. It won’t damage the steel.”

Oliver wrapped his arm around the small of Laurel’s back and could feel the warmth of her breath on his neck. “I’m so sorry, Pretty Bird.” Any other night and they would have been okay. But not this cold December night. “No one knows where we are, the shipping yard is so large.”

“Shh. It’s not your fault, Ollie.” She shivered. “Dad and Speedy will find us.” She was quiet for a little while, “We stopped them from taking the drugs…”

Oliver swallowed and held her hands in his. The container was so cold that he could barely feel anything. Everything felt numb. He didn’t know how long they had been trapped in the container, what made it worse was the silence. He hadn’t heard Laurel for some time.

Oliver gently nudged her. “Pretty Bird?” He slurred. Everything seemed to take more effort, even to speak. “Laurel.” He tried again.”

“Hmmm?”

“What do you want to do for the Christmas break? We could travel down to Australia where it is warm.” Oliver suggested. Laurel didn’t answer. “Laurel?” His heart dropped as he prodded her again. He couldn’t let the love of his life freeze to death.

“Nice warm sand…” Laurel hummed.

“I’ll add two tickets for both of us to head down there for a couple of weeks. An added Christmas present.” He had to keep her awake and alert, keeping her mind on summer, and Christmas would hopefully do that.

Eventually, the conversation lulled back to silence. He struggled to keep his eyes open. It wasn’t until he heard the sound of metal being scraped on metal, did he manage to open his eyes. He pressed a kiss against Laurel’s cheek, before sluggishly blocking her body from the door in case it was going to be the thugs returning.

The first thing he saw was the flashlights. He then saw Lance kneeling in front of him, half-carrying him, half-leading him to the van. “Laurel will be alright, your sister has her.” The older man assured him.

Eventually, Laurel was sitting next to him, both with heat packs and thick warm blankets around their shoulders, and given a cup of hot coffee each from a thermal.

“I suppose we ruined Christmas Eve for you both?” Laurel murmured.

“Nah!” Thea scooted closer to him. “We noticed you weren’t back, so we went hunting. We caught the traffickers, and they told us where you were.” She then gave each of them a hug. “Had to dig the snow out of the way. Consider it an extra Christmas present.”

“Just no more heroics?” Lance grumbled as he drove them to The Bunker. “The holidays aren’t supposed to be stressful.”

“Got it.” Oliver felt Laurel snigger against him. He wrapped his arm around her and gave pressed another kiss to her now warm cheek. “Merry Christmas, Pretty Bird.”

“Merry Christmas, Ollie.”

  
  



End file.
